English Translation Siree Guru Granth Sahib
Swarn Singh Bains has translated Siree Guru Granth Sahib (SGGS) in simple English that could easily be understood by any English speaking person. It is in easy to understand English, certainly not in long latinized words. Swarn Singh Bains has also created a webpage that has this translation freely available 'for everyone: http://swarnbains.tripod.com Here are some excerpts from Siree Guru Granth Sahib: God is one. It is true. He is the Creator. He has no concern with anything. He has no enemy. He is immortal. He does not take birth. He came into existence on His own. He is realized by guru’s (divine teacher) grace reciting God’s name. ' “ Recite” Page 9 - Be stable like a mountain, patience like a goldsmith. Be humble like an anvil; repeat the name of God like the repetition of a hammer. Intent like bellows and repeat the name of God from within, as fire gives heat. Make sincerity a pot; mint your mind with the name of God. That is how divinity is achieved. Blessed by God is the only one who can do this. Nanak says, only with God’s grace you can miss God and enjoy the fruit. ||38|| Hymn: Using air as a culture, life has been created by the reaction of water and earth. The way, day and night begin and end. Same way the whole creation takes birth and dies. Good or bad whatever they do are accounted for in God’s court. Everyone gets the fruit of their deeds, some soon others late. Whoever worked hard to recite the name of God? Nanak says, they have attained salvation and many more have accompanied them. First master page 1421. God’s worship is not wearing saffron coloured or dirty clothes. O Nanak, God is worshipped sitting at home through true guru’s teaching. ||64|| You may wander in all four corners and read four Vedas and all other scriptures in all four ages. O Nanak, if you meet with the true guru, then God enshrines in the mind and obtains salvation. The guru is God. Worshipping guru the God with devotion attains salvation. First Master: Songs, sounds, pleasures and clever tricks; Joy, love and the power to command; Wearing clothes and food have no place in the consciousness. True intuitive peace comes by enshrining God’s name in the mind. Page 60 - O mind, love God as the fish loves water. As the water gets deeper she enjoys more; the mind and body become peaceful. It cannot survive without water even for a moment. Then water also feels the pain. ||2|| O mind, love the Lord, as the rain bird loves rain. The ponds get filled, the land becomes lush green but the rain bird does not get a drop. You receive what is in your fate. You only get what you earn. ||3|| O mind, love God as the water loves milk. Water mixed with milk changes its colour but does not let the milk change. Page 262 - Fifth Master Hymn: Guru is mother, the father, the master and transcendent Lord. Guru is a friend the destroyer of ignorance, a relative and a brother. Guru is the bestowal, the teacher of God’s name. Guru’s lesson is distinct. Guru is the image of peace truth and intellect. Guru is the touchstone that transforms. Guru is a shrine, pool of nectar. To obtain guru’s divine knowledge is beyond imagination. Guru is the Creator, the destroyer of sins; Guru purifies the sinners. Guru exists from the beginning, for a long time, for ages. Reciting God through guru’s teaching attains salvation. O God; unite me with the guru by your grace; that I the sinner swim across holding on to guru the true guru the God the transcendent Lord the guru; Nanak prays and pays his regard to guru the God. ||1|| ||56|| Kabeer; page 1364. Once you obtain divine treasure, do not tell anyone O kabeer; There is no market, no appraiser, no customer, and no price ||23|| O Kabeer; page 1368; take your drum and beat it for ten days. Life is like people meeting on a boat on a river; they shall not meet again. ||80|| Kabeer page 1372; Be a pebble stone lying on the road by giving up ego. Such a humble slave shall meet the Lord. ||146|| What good is the pebble; which gives pain to the walking. O Lord, Your servant should be like dirt on the earth. ||147|| What good is the dust, which blows and sticks to the body. God’s servant should be such, as water in water. ||148|| What good is water which becomes cold and hot. God’s servant should just like God: ||149|| O Kabeer; it is good to serve both; one the saint the other the God. God is the bestowal of liberation; the saint inspires us to recite His name. ||164|| O Kabeer; there is a difference in saying God; there is a secret in it. Everyone says same word God; same word God creates wonders; ||190|| Naam Dev; God is one. He is realized by guru’s grace. The mind alone knows the state of mind; what can I say to the all Knowing God. I recite the inner knower God; why should I be afraid? ||1|| My mind is pierced by the love of the Lord of the world. My God is pervading everywhere. Hymns Of Sheikh Fareed Jee: The day of the bride's wedding is pre-ordained. On that day, he who is called the devil of death, comes and shows his face. He shakes the bones and takes away the life. That pre-ordained time of marriage cannot be changed. Explain this to your soul. The soul is the bride, and death is the groom. He will marry her and take her away. Fareed; do not slander the dirt; noting is as great as dirt. When we are alive, it is under our feet, when we die, it is on top. ||17|| Fareed; go to the place where people get together and look at the gong; This sinless is being beaten; imagine what will happen to us sinful; ||39|| Each and every hour, it is beaten; it is punished every day. This beautiful body is like the gong; it passes the night in pain. ||40|| Page 1380 Sheikh Fareed has grown old, and his body has begun to tremble. Even if he could live for hundred years, his body will eventually turn to dust. ||41|| Fareed begs, O Lord, do not make me sit at another's door. If You keep me this way; better take the life out of my body; ||42|| Fifth Master: The Creator is in the creation, and the creation is in God. Whom can we call bad? When there is none without Him. ||75|| He says, if you reform yourself, you shall meet Him, meeting Him you shall be at peace. O Fareed; if you become mine, the whole world will be yours."||95|| One who is not touched by pleasure, pain, greed and egotistic pride? he is the image of God. Says Nanak, listen O mind: ||13|| One, who is beyond praise and slander, and looks at gold and iron alike; Says Nanak, listen O mind: he is a saint and attains salvation. ||14|| The mortal who recites God day and night; know that he is the image of God; Page 1428 There is no difference between God and His devotee O Nanak, believe it; ||29|| Those who make pilgrimages to shrines observe fasts and give awns and then feel proud of it; O Nanak, it goes waste like the elephant throws dust on the body after taking bath. ||46|| God’s name remains; the devotee remains; the guru, the Lord of the universe, remains. Says Nanak, those who recite guru’s word are rare. There are three things put on this platter; truth contentment and knowledge. In that is the sacred name of God; He is the support of all. One who eats and digests it; obtains liberation. Page 1430 - All are sons of God whether eighteen, ten or twenty. This translation is availabe in two books at www.xlibris.com in English. Also available free of charge at http://swarnbains.tripod.com it is available in any shop anywhere just give the isbn number of both volumes of the book.isbn 10-1-4415-9888-x and the second 13-978-1-4415-988-2 janmeja@gmail.com in Punjabi on top and English at the bottom Please e-mail your comments to the author at: bains_swarn@yahoo.com